Misinformation about the causes of cancer can unfortunately lead people to refuse appropriate preventive measures and make incorrect medical decisions.
People who believe in conspiracies and fall prey to (mainly online) misinformation – or those who favor alternative medical treatments – are also more likely to adopt various mythical rather than real causes of cancer, according to a new Spanish study.
Various social media platforms have given rise to various exaggerations, pseudo-scientific theories and nonsense.
The findings, according to the scientists, highlight the difficulty faced by society in distinguishing the real etiology of cancer from imaginary and non-existent causes, which is largely due to the spread of relevant misinformation mainly through the internet.
Misinformation about the causes of cancer can unfortunately lead people to refuse appropriate preventive measures and make incorrect medical decisions.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and it is estimated that nearly half of all cases could be prevented through timely lifestyle changes and vaccination (eg against HPV).
The research
The researchers, led by Dr. Laura Costas of the Cancer Epidemiology Research Program at the Catalan Institute of Oncology in Barcelona, ​​who made the relevant publication in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), studied the posts and discussions on various online platforms about with beliefs regarding the causes of cancer.
In total, the views of nearly 1,500 people were evaluated, of which 209 were anti-vaccinationists, 112 advocates of alternative medicine instead of conventional medicine, while 62 had other extreme conspiracy beliefs.
As real reasonsof the various forms of the disease were considered smoking, alcohol consumption, little to no physical exercise/activity, sunburn, family history of cancer, HPV infection, obesity, etc.
As mythical causes of cancer were considered the use of mobile phones or microwave ovens, the consumption of foods with artificial sweeteners/additives or genetically modified foods, the use of chemical cleaning products, living near power lines, stress, etc.
Remarkably, almost half of the participants (45%)—regardless of whether they were conspiracy-minded or not—agreed with the statement “everything seems to cause cancer.” This shows, according to the researchers, that society is having trouble distinguishing the real from the mythical causes of cancer.
Furthermore, conspiracy theorists/anti-vaccine/alternatives have been found to be more likely to believe in mythical than actual causes of disease.
RES-EMP
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